


Sparks Fly For Magnemite

by ApproachingEden



Series: Do You Bayleef In Love [2]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 20:24:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11215638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApproachingEden/pseuds/ApproachingEden
Summary: Emu knows that despite appearances, Hiiro is, like all human beings, soft and squishy inside.





	Sparks Fly For Magnemite

Emu used to be among those who think Hiiro is intimidating. Every interaction with him seemed like a boss battle on merciless mode.

They still do, sometimes, especially when inside the operating room and Hiiro has a scalpel in his hand. Many of the other doctors in their hospital find Hiiro too serious, and while his good-looking face seem super effective on his peers, the perpetual frown he wears keeps most of them at a distance. But Emu now knows better than to be repelled by Hiiro's prickly exterior. Despite appearances, Hiiro is, like all human beings, soft and squishy inside, and capable of more emotions than just "mildly exasperated" and "intensely irritated".

However, a lot of times Emu forgets not everyone has had the chance of seeing the softer side of Hiiro, so he was less than prepared when Asuna shrieks in delighted surprise at the photo from their weekend trip to Four Island. Asuna's Sylveon was sleeping on Emu's lap when it was rudely awakened, so it huffs and runs off perhaps to find a more comfortable napping spot. Some helper Chansey passing by also stare at them, alarmed and worried, until Emu apologetically waves them away.

"That's too cute!" Asuna says. With both her hands, she grabs Emu's hand that is holding his phone and pulls the screen close to her face. "Too adorable! I can't believe you brought him to a Day Care Center! How did you manage to convince him?!" 

"With my charm, probably," Emu jokes with a playful shrug. He's already proud of himself for managing to survive Hiiro without major incident over the weekend but somehow Asuna's enthusiasm is really buffing up his ego. "We even ended up staying pretty late. The babies really liked him. And I guess Swablu thought Hiiro-san's head was very comfortable..."

"He let you take a picture too! I can't believe it!"

"Well, if you're willing to be flexible with the definition of 'let'..."

"Are there more? I want to see more!" Asuna releases Emu's hand and starts bouncing in place. She's usually more subdued when not in idol mode, but her bubbly Poppy persona isn't entirely an act: she can get really animated when excited. "I haven't seen Hiiro like this before. He looks surprisingly..."

"Peaceful?"

"Yeah! Very gentle! He almost looks fond of the babies!"

The smile creeping on Emu's face refuses to be bit down. "There's a video, but I can't show you."

"Eh???!!! Why not?!"

"I can't! I made a promise."

Asuna pouts and puts her hands on her hips. " _Can't_ or _won't_?"

"Both, I guess?"

"Unfair!!! Emu, you're being greedy! You can't tell me it exists and then not show me!"

Emu laughs as he tucks his phone in his pocket. "Hiiro-san said I can take them but not post them anywhere, so they're staying private, okay?"

"You can't _post_ them, but did he say anything about showing them to others in person?" Asuna walks up behind Emu and shakes him by the shoulders. "Come ooonnnnnn! I wanna see!!"

The truth is that Hiiro didn't explicitly forbid Emu to share the photos he took. Hiiro's wording left a lot of exploitable loopholes. There isn't any sworn oath preventing him to do so if he really wanted to show Asuna. Although saying he _can't_ isn't a complete lie, she's right that Emu _won't_.

There isn't a lot to show anyway. Emu took only a few photos and one video, choosing to live in the moment instead. He spent most of his time intently watching Hiiro play with the baby Pokemon, tattooing the sight into his eyeballs and engraving the memory into his brain. If Asuna wanted to see more, she'll have to crack open his skull for it.

"Good morning, Hiiro!" Asuna calls out. "I heard you went to Four Island last weekend~"

Hiiro enters the room with a strawberry shortcake and takes the seat across the table to Emu.

"I did," Hiiro says flatly. He isn't scowling, though, so Emu takes that as a good sign.

"Aaaand you went to the Day Care Center!"

"Yes, I did. Where are you trying to go with this?"

"Well, I was just thinking." Asuna sits next to Hiiro. "Maybe next time I can come with. You seemed like you were having a lot of fun with those babies."

A frown appears on Hiiro's face, the hand that was about to deliver an abnormally large bite of cake to his mouth freezing halfway. He looks at Emu the way an RPG protagonist looks at their best friend who just killed his family and set their entire village on fire.

"What happened to keeping it to yourself?" he says.

Panicked, Emu leans over the table towards Hiiro. He whines, "It was just one picture! I don't ever intend to share the others, you know."

An agonizingly long silence descends upon them. At least, that's what it seems like to Emu, but it's probably only just a few seconds. Either way his heart feels like it's trying to smash through his chest, the way it does whenever his PC crashes in the middle of a particularly challenging dungeon and he realizes he hasn't saved in the last three hours.

"... Do what you want," Hiiro finally says. He looks away and shoves cake into his mouth.

Asuna pokes Hiiro's shoulder. "Take me with you next time!"

Hiiro ignores her, instead wordlessly demolishing his strawberry shortcake. Of course this doesn't discourage Asuna at all, poking at his shoulder repeatedly. Among the staff in this hospital, Asuna is probably the only human besides Taiga and Hiiro's father who isn't afraid of him to some degree. Emu admires and respects that, but just because Hiiro lets her get away with disturbing his cake time doesn't mean Emu wants to encourage it. After all, that bad mood will be taken out on something else and there's always the possibility that that something else is the intern. Which is what Emu is, currently.

Eventually Asuna's break ends and her Audino comes in to fetch her, leaving Emu alone with Hiiro who has succeeded in banishing an entire cake to the incomprehensible void that is his stomach. Hiiro licks a blob of cream off his lips, a move that Emu thinks is completely and utterly unnecessary. It's cute, sure, but couldn't he have just used a napkin to wipe it off?

Emu wants to scream but he settles with loudly clearing his throat. He sits up straight.

Hiiro finally looks up at him. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry," says Emu. "I shouldn't have shown the photo to Asuna-san."

Hiiro gets up to wash his plates and utensils at the sink. "Didn't I tell you it's your business what you do with them?"

"But you're upset. I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset."

"You're angry."

"I will be if you don't stop this."

When Hiiro finishes cleaning up, he turns to leave the room without sparing Emu a glance. Emu, of course, is not the type to leave quests unfinished so he gets up to follow.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I promise I won't show anyone else!"

Hiiro scowls, clearly annoyed. He's still keeping his eyes up ahead. Emu thinks if he wasn't already in trouble, he certainly is now.

"How many times do I have to tell you—"

"Yes, yes, I can do what I want. But you're still angry!"

"I'm not angry."

"Yes, you are!"

Emu quickly moves ahead of Hiiro to block his path. Hiiro responds by closing his eyes and bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"What are you doing?" Hiiro asks.

"Um. What I want?" Emu replies.

"To stand in my way?"

"If that's what it takes to have you look at me."

At last, Hiiro opens his eyes and looks at Emu. He sighs heavily, exasperated. "I'm not angry, alright? Do what you want with those photos and videos, just move aside and let me go do my job. Or you go do yours."

Emu frowns. "But you're unhappy. You didn't like that I showed Asuna-san the picture."

"I'm not—" Hiiro takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. He looks to the side again, but this time he looks almost _shy_ and Emu swears there's a little pink on his cheeks. "I was just surprised. You said you wanted to keep it to yourself so I was under the impression that you weren't going to show anyone. But I'm not angry."

"Really?"

"Really."

Emu moves to look at Hiiro's face and he follows Hiiro's movement every time he tries to look away from him. There's something charming about the pink on the doctor's cheeks slowly deepening in color, and the thought that he is the probable cause of this rare phenomenon warms Emu's morning better than the ungodly amount of caffeine he had to consume to get to work today. 

"Will you stop that?!" Hiiro hisses.

"Why won't you look at me?" says Emu.

"Why do I have to look at you?"

"I don't know... I mean... if you're really not angry..."

Hiiro's head snaps back to finally look at Emu straight in the eyes. "There! I'm looking at you. Are you satisfied?"

With a wide grin on his face, Emu nods. "Yes. Thank you."

"Anything else you want or can I leave now?"

Should an honest answer be required, yes, there is something Emu wants. It's partly why he can't stand the thought of upsetting Hiiro. It's why he invited him to that trip in the first place. It's why he's happy to be privy to this side of Hiiro and why he wanted to be the only one to see it, why he wanted to keep _this_ Hiiro to himself.

However, it's probably a little too early to challenge the final boss. He'll have to do a little more level grinding before moving in. So for now, working on maxing out his relationship value with Hiiro is the most sensible course of action.

"Hiiro-san," says Emu, "please let me make more memories with you."

At this point, there is no way to deny the blush on Hiiro's face.

"We don't have to go out too far next time," Emu continues. "You can pick the place, too. I showed you one of my usual hangouts so next time you take me to yours!"

No reply. Hiiro just stares at him with an unreadable expression. Emu's face begin to warm up and he's starting to regret saying anything. Did he not yet have enough charm points to shoot for this rank up?

"I mean...," says Emu, trying hard not to stutter. "Only if it's okay with you...."

This time Emu doesn't try to follow Hiiro's gaze when he lowers it.

"I said you can do what you want, didn't I?" Hiiro says quietly.

Hiiro slips his hands into the pockets of his pants and shifts on his feet. It's adorable, Emu thinks. In what other situation can Hiiro get flustered enough to be restless? He's always so proud and sure of himself that seeing him this way is quite refreshing.

"So... we can keep hanging out?" says Emu. "Outside work?"

"I don't mind."

"That's a yes."

"It is."

Emu is so happy that a toothy grin threatens to split his face apart. He wants to jump around, maybe give Hiiro a hug, but he knows he absolutely won't get away unscathed if he tried that. So he just flashes Hiiro the brightest smile he's ever smiled in his entire life since winning the League Championship six years ago.

"Is—" Hiiro clears his throat, "—Is that all?"

"Yes, Hiiro-san," Emu says.

"Then get back to work. Break time's over."

Hiiro pushes past him, off to whatever appointment Emu was keeping him from. Their eyes meet—only a fraction of a second—and Emu feels the prickle of electricity on his skin. A rush of excitement fills his lungs and speeds the beating of his heart, as if a catchy final battle theme music just started playing and he's ready to claim another victory.

This isn't the final dungeon, though. Not yet. There's still a little more work to do. Emu isn't looking to do a speed run; he knows that patience has its rewards. He'll open every chest, pick up every sidequest, complete every mission, and unlock the ultimate weapon. He'll pick at Hiiro's shell little by little, so that someday the final battle in merciless mode will be a piece of cake.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hey do you know i also [draw this au](https://twitter.com/i/moments/861173443483410432) (say hi to me on twitter)


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